My First Thursday Thirteen

I've been thinking as a writer I should get more into a schedule of sorts. So I've planned something for 5 days of the week do here. I'm going to count this as my first step in a hopefully positive step forward in making myself accountable for ME! Of course it just might turn out to be another distraction.

Now on to my first Thursday Thirteen: My 13 Biggest Distractions

1.) My kids.

2.) My husband.

3.) Thier cats.

4.) TV. I like to listen to The View, and Wendy Williams during the day. Nights is when I get seroius fix. I like Castle, Sons of Anarcy, Neccessary Roughness, Eureka, Project Runway and a dozen others. Thank heavens for whoever created the DVR.

5.) Facebook, but this hasn't been the case the past 2 days since I can't seem to gel with the new format. Still you can find me here.

6.) Games on Facebook, this is where they should make it more complicated to keep me away.

7.) Twitter. Tweetdeck is running all day. I should probably shut it off, but I'm afraid I'll miss something ;) tweet me at @ritasawyer

8.) Other story ideas. I seem to have the problem that as soon as a start a project that's when I get new shiny ideas. Hence the notebooks I have strategically placed around the house.

9.) My sister Dee. Love her to death, but she calls or text about 5 times a day.


10.) Romance Divas I may not post often, but I check in a few times a day.

11.) RT forums are another place to get lost.

12.) Cooking. I'm working on getting my family to eat healthier, which means me cooking more.  

13.) Bowling. I know this may have a few people shaking thier heads, but it's true. I take my niece and nephew to bowling league on Saturday mornings, and I'm in a league with my son, and my sister and her husband on Monday nights.

August 2011 Wrap Up

We had a lot of fun and the kids got to see the animals up close. The bunnies and piglets seemed to be the biggest hits. The tractor pulls were loud, but fun to watch. All in all a great day.Okay between writing, AADPhilly, and family stuff this month has been extremely busy. So since I'm staying in today to avaid what little of Hurricane Irene did make it here to Worcester MA (mainly some wind and rain) I figured it was time to clear my head and camera.

I'll start with the writing. I finished up Deliberately Brazen, book 5 in my Brazen Sister Series for Siren Publishing. And Her Mr. Wrong book 3 in my What Are Friends For Series with Siren Publishing. Also Pink Petal Books has contracted my novella Love Me Or Lose Me, which is the 1st in my Blackridges Series.

So since I have been working really hard I think it's only fair that I played too. I attended Authors After Dark in Philly with a bunch of great readers, bloggers, and authors.

Here are Melissa Schroeder,                                                Joy Harris( from Joyfully Reviewed),  

 

and JoJo(from JoJo's Book Corner) presenting at the Bookie Awards. I had the shocked honor of having JoJo present my Bookie Award for Best Contemporary Short Story for A Damsel Without A Dress

Then yesterday despite a few sprinkles hubby and I took son, neice and nephew to the Brooklyn Fair in Connecticut.



My nephew Joshua



We had a lot of fun and the kids got to see the animals up close.

  The bunnies and

piglets seemed to be the biggest hits.

The tractor pulls were loud, but fun to watch. All in all a great day.

My New Release: Sacrifice Turned Seduction

     I happy to announce my newest release with Siren Publishing is out now. This is book 2 in my What Are Friends For Series

   Dianne Killbrew made a deal with Gage Dillinger. He did his part, and now she has to spend a week being wined and dined by him. She’ll have to make sure his smooth sexy ways don’t get under her skin and hope he doesn't see past her sparkle and glitz to the shy girl hiding beneath. There is a lot at risk, but she’s made a deal, and she’s going to stick to it.

        Gage can't ignore how much he wants Dianne. It is more than physical desire. He wants to get to know everything about her. The problem is she avoids him whenever possible. So when he is given the chance to put her in a position where she owes him something, he chooses her. Now he’s going to do whatever it takes to get her to see he’s not the player everyone thinks he is.

You can read more HERE or buy HERE

And if you missed book 1: Doing Her Way now is the perfect time to pick it up because Siren Publishing is offering it for 15 % off this week.

Lainey Miles wants nothing more than to marry her sexy fiancé Jace Cannon. She’s been putting off setting a date because she doesn’t want the big white wedding her mother’s counting on. Jace isn’t hiding the fact he’s getting antsy either. She knows something has to be done and fast. So she recruits her friends to plan a surprise wedding that Jace will never forget.

Jace doesn’t understand why Lainey won’t even talk about setting a date for their wedding. If she changed her mind, he wished she’d just say so, but with the way they were burning up the sheets he didn’t think that was the problem. He was determined that as soon as he got back from his business trip they were going to sit down and work things out. One way or another he is going to get an answer out of her.

Want to read more go HERE or BUY

My Summer Movie Project is underway.

No I'm not making a movie. However my family is big on movies, whether on  the big or small screen. So here's the deal. In April I started making a list of all the movies coming out that I wanted to see before the end of the summer. September 7th is my deadline. Why Sept. 7th? Because it seemed a good idea to have a cutoff point or the list would just keep growing. And that's my Dad's birthday so I know it won't sneak pass me.

So here's my list. The movies are scored solely on how much I enjoyed them.

My Summer Movie List

The plan is as I see the movies on the list I'll come back and update the grades. If it's as good as Fast Five was I'll even put up the Trailer.

Feel free to tell me if you think I'm right or wrong. Or just give me your opinion if you want. At the end of the project I'll do a contest to celebrate.

My Lori Foster Get Together Adventure

I'm ready to dish on my trip to Lori Foster's Reader and Author Get Together in Ohio last weekend. It has taken me a week to collect my thoughts, upload pictures, and recover from spending so much time driving.

Thursday June 1st
The con ran from Friday the 3rd thru Sunday the 5th, but my daughter and I headed out a day early so we could take our time. The drive from Massachusetts to Ohio took us around 13 hours. We left about 2:30am got in around 4pm. Once we got there I needed to stretch my tight muscles so we went to IKEA. Neither of us had ever been there before and loved it (even though I took us about a half hour to find the exit). They had some really cool stuff. I picked up something for my son.

the view of IKEA from our room, had no idea how big it really was until we went.

 Friday June 2nd
The conference didn't kick off until 4pm so we decided to spend the morning at the Cincinnati Zoo. along with all the animals we saw we also watched the The Wizard of Oz 4-D Experience.  We even had quite the experience feeding a giraffe. 

 Then it was back to the hotel to freshen up and register for the conference. After getting our goodie bags we headed to the ballroom for the opening ceremony and Pizza party. We sat at the table with the fabulous Steam Punk centerpeice (which my daughter won) made by authors Mari Freeman and Samantha Kane, who also sat at the table along with author Kristin Daniels. Book bloggers @thejeepdiva, @jade_mermaid, @zombvmpr were at the table too. After dinner we played games and mingled until midnight

playing pin the tag on the dog-tags.

Saturday June 4th
The day started early at 8am for breakfast in the ballroom. Then it was off to the workshops. First on my list was the presentation with Secret Cravings Publishing. Then we went to The Joys and Struggles of Being Different with Leanna Reneee Hieber. Once the morning workshops were over we did some mingling and had lunch.

some of the 181 gift baskets for the charity raffle

We kicked the afternoon workshops off with COS and Fresh Fiction. We talked about what readers were looking for when the visited author and other reader websites. Lots of info given in a short time. :) Then we took a much needed, but quick break before heading back to the ballroom for raffle drawings and author group photos before dinner.

all the authors that attended

Saturday night we went to the Sock Hop thrown by Author Island. There was games, great music, and more mingling with awesome readers and authors.

Sunday June 5th
We took time for breakfast then hit the road for home. Another 13 hour ride most of it through the Pennsylvania mountains and we finally made it. We had a good time, met great people, and I even started a collection of romance trading cards.

Rebecca (Adele Quinn) won the steam punk centerpiece with Mari Freeman, and Samantha Kane

Family Day

Sunday in the Sawyer house is for family. It's the day I usually sit down go over what did and didn't get accomplished during the past week, and make my plans for the next week. My family tells each other their plans. Sunday night is TV night for me and my daughter.

This Sunday was a little different. Why? It's my Mommy's birthday. I won't say how old she is, just that she doesn't look her age. The kids and I have been tossing out ideas about what to get her all week with nobody agreeing on anything. Hubby and I went out this morning to find something, but had no luck. It's not that we couldn't find anything she would like. I was just hoping something would just jump out say "I'm the perfect gift". No such luck. Anyway we're having a big family cookout at my sister's house tomorrow and we ran around today getting last minute stuff togther for that.

It's after mid-night and I finally just sat down and went over the weeks to do list. It looooong, and it basically needs to get done in 3 days. Why? Because my daughter and I will be leaving Thursday for our trip to the Lori Foster Reader Get Together Ohio. So I have list of things to get done along with packing. I'm a lister and usually have everything done with days to spare. I'm feeling way behind right now. But at the same time I'm really excited to see some familiar faces and meet some fabulous authors.

My New Release

The Millionaire's Fake Fiancée

 available from

Pink Petal Books

           Harley Taizer wasn’t used to dealing with her greedy parents. They’d never wanted her and had made it perfectly clear by giving her to her grandfather the day she'd been born. It’s funny how things change when money is involved. Discovering her trust fund, her parents show up demanding she give them the money. Afraid of just how far his son and daughter in-law will go, her grandfather brings in a security specialist to help.

          Kasper Drake hasn’t met a trust fund baby he liked, though he is one himself. Upon meeting his uncle’s newest client he’s willing to throw all his preconceived notions out the window. He’s trying to get Harley to admit to their fierce attraction when her father shows up demanding to know Kasper's identity. She tells him that he’s her fiancée. Kasper latches onto her lie hoping to make her see how good it could be.

Read more HERE